Quite a surprise
by vic elor
Summary: Tino and Tish have a big problem after a secret meeting after school.
1. An unexpected appereance

"Tino, your friend Tish is here!" Tino's mother called to him from downstairs before returning to the young girl lugging her school backpack, "Are Carver and Lor coming as well?"

"No, it's just me right now. Tino and I have something we need to work on together." Tish replied meekly.

"Oh, some class project of sorts?"

"Of sorts." Tish replied, even meeker then before. She hated to lie to Tino's mother but there was no way she was going to tell her the truth… at least not yet. And it wasn't a total lie; their problem did start at school.

"Alright, well… why don't you just head upstairs then. I'm glad you are working with Tino on this project. His grades could really use some work and I know how well you do in school."

"Thanks Ms. Tonitini." Tish replied with a forced smile before heading up the stairs towards Tino's room.

'How did I ever get into this…' Tish thought to herself.

'Tish is normally so much more energetic then that.' Mrs Tonitini thought to herself as she returned to the wheat germ cake she was preparing, 'I hope nothing's wrong with her. I also hope leaving those two alone in his room isn't a mistake… I mean, they know better and Tish doesn't seem like that kind of girl but then again…'


	2. Tish's shock

"Oh, hey Tish! I wasn't expecting you. Weren't the four of us going to meet down at the pizza place later?" Tino asked, surprised to see his geekish friend and especially surprised to see her with such a bleak expression, "What's wrong?"

"Tino, we need to talk!" Tish answered him vaguely, quickly closing the bedroom door behind her before producing a small piece of plastic from her backpack, shoved it into his hand, and rushing over to Tino's bed, flopping down face first into the pillow to cover the sound of her sobs.

"Umm… What's this?" Tino asked, turning the strange piece of plastic every which direction, "Some sort of evil government probe sent here to…"

"It's a pregnancy test." Tish managed to mutter between sobs, cutting Tino off from his bizarre rant.

"What?" Tino asked, dropping the device on the floor, "Why did you bring me that?"

"Because it's positive…" Tish moaned.

"That means what now?" Tino asked still a bit stunned.

"It means I'm pregnant!"

"Oh…." Tino said solemnly, thinking back to his brief encounter with Tish in the school storage room a few weeks earlier.


	3. What's the worst that can happen?

"Maybe we should tell you parents; I mean, they're going to know eventually right?" Tino suggested, barely getting the words out of his mouth before Tish stopped sobbing, and bolted up, giving Tino a look of utter horror.

"You can't be serious? Do you have any idea what will happen if we tell my parents about this? Do you? Do you?" Tish asked, screaming by the second 'do you.'

"What's the worst that can happen, I mean they seem calm and relaxed and what not."

"What's the worst that can happen? Let me tell you exactly what will happen…" Tish explained.

The world fades to a foggy white as Tish explains how she believes her parents will react as reality is replaced by Tish's fantasy world.

Tino and Tish's father are alone in a private room, both dressed in fancy suits as the older man assists Tino with his outfit.

"We are very happy to find you're a good mench. You will make the very good son-in-law, yes!" Tish's father chirps as the color drains from Tino's face.

At the same time, in another room Tish and her mother are preparing the final alterations to Tish's wedding dress.

"You look so pretty in family dress. Just a few more stitches and everything will be wood as glue." Tish's mother says happily.

"I think you mean 'good as new.'"

"Is what I say!"

"Ooooh, old fashioned type. I see. Let's not tell them til we have to." Tino agreed, now understanding Tish's resistance.

"You're darn right! Now, we need to figure out what we're going to do about this."


	4. What if?

"Well, it could be worse." Tino said abruptly after a moment terrified silence.

"What do you mean?" Tish asked, beginning to freak out, "How could this possibly be worse?"

"We could be in this with someone else…" Tino explained trailing off as he imagined hearing this from the only other girl he knew well; Lor.

"You're pregnant?" Tino asked, shocked.

"I'm pregnant?" Lor yelped back.

"Ah… you can't act surprised Lor. You were the one you just told me."

"Oh yeah, right. Sorry."

"Dog pile on Lor!" A male voice from out of nowhere shouted just before all of Lor's brothers appeared out of nowhere to jump on her.

"Carver… I have something we need to talk about. I'm pregnant!" Tish explained.

"Do you think this shirt goes with these pants?" Carver asked, ignoring Tish's announcement.

"Carver, are you listening?" Tish asked.

"What, of course!" Carver replied.

"Then what did I just say?"

"I don't know… something about a mole rat?"

"Ok, I can see your point though it's not very comforting." Tish told Tino.

"Well, what if I told you you're cute when you're scared?" Tino asked.

Tish simply stared at Tino, unable to believe he just said that.

"That didn't help anything, did it?" Tino asked.


	5. Parental advice

"I know normally I'd suggest something that in my head sounded like a good and reasonable idea but turns out to be a total waste of time and effort so instead I'm going to try and be calm and rational about this." Tino said, trying to slow down his breathing as he felt himself beginning to freak out and hyperventilate, "So umm… I might need your help with that since that's usually your department."

"Well, let's start by listing all the reasonable options." Tish suggested, trying not to show how freaked out she still was in fear that Tino would lose control.

"Well, we can go ask Carver's older sister about when she…" Tino began a tad skittishly before Tish grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pull him close enough that the two were locked eye to eye.

"I know where you're going with that and NO!" Tish ordered, "First, that's just a rumor and probably not true and second even if it was true I am not going to do that. Do you understand me?"

"Okay, okay… I was just trying to be helpful." Tino replied sheepishly.

Tish, hearing the fear in Tino's voice, let go of her grip and rubbed his shirt to try and restore it to its earlier appearance. Just as Tino knew that at times he suggested totally terrible idea Tish knew that she had the occasional habit of overreacting. She didn't want Tino to be scared, especially of her. It had been her idea to meet up in the school storage room that day and it had been her idea that they should try exploring the idea of being more then friends. Tish herself would have been the last person to suspect it before it happened but at some point in her life her feelings from Tino had advanced from friendship to love.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to freak out." Tish apologized.

"It's okay." Tino replied, trying to hide the fact that the most peaceful and feminine of his friends had just scared him witless.

"I just, I don't think its right to do that."

"Yeah, you're probably right. What about adoption then?"

"I… I don't know… I just don't know if I can do that; I mean, I feel like I could do that now but there are so many documented cases of mothers saying that same thing and yet not being able to go through with it in the end."

"Didn't they something like in sex ed?" Tino asked.

"Yeah, I think so. Maybe we should tell your mom about this?" Tish asked softly, "She always seems to know what to do."

"Yeah, I don't think either of us would like her advice in this case."

"Yeah he's probably right but it's too late because you're going to get it anyway." Tino's mother said, leaning against her son's doorway with a little grin as the two turned around in surprise.

"How much did you hear?" Tish asked meekly.

"Enough though I didn't really have to have heard very much to know what was going on. I was once a girl your age and it didn't take me that long to recognize a freakout." Tino's mom replied.

"What do you think we should do Ms Tonitini?" Tish asked, ashamed that she felt safer asking for advice from Tino's mom rather then her own parents.

"I think you really don't have a lot of choices, especially with how you feel about some of your options. You can take a day or two if you need to but eventually you're going to have to tell your parents. Don't worry though; Tino and I will be behind you 100% no matter what your decision is."

Tino's mom was about to leave the room when she suddenly remember the phone call she had received earlier that day.

"This may not be the best time to bring this up Tino but your cousins are coming to visit for a few days."

"Which cousins?" Tino asked suspiciously, remembering how wrongly he had misjudged one of his cousins a few months earlier.

"My sister Lila's kids."

"Lila… Lila…Which one is that again?" Tino asked.

"The workaholic who always seems too busy."

"Please tell me that's not the one with the twins, the boy, and the weird hairy kid that always seems to come with them?"

"Don't be so mean," Tish said as she punched Tino in the arm, "I actually like the girls… well, at least I like Mary. Susan is just a bit too high strung for me."

"See, even your girlfriend likes them. And besides, there not all coming. According to Lila your cousins need some time apart so it's just Susan and Johnny coming." Tino's mom replied, unaware that it had actually been Mary who used her voice modulator to sound like her mother. At that moment she was simply glad that Tino hadn't freaked out when she referred to Tish as his girlfriend.


End file.
